The health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are obvious. Perhaps more worrisome is what the outbreak means for global economic prospects and our ability to understand and rely upon decision-making within the Chinese government's black box.
A question that comes to mind is what is the reliability of governance under Xi. It was the hardening of authoritarian rule that created the conditions for the COVID-19 outbreak to be mismanaged so disastrously. Now it is a pandemic. Worse still, it has the potential to push many economies into recession and usher in a transnational disease epidemic into regions that are unprepared economically or materially for it.
Other questions include how widespread is the decision-making process breakdown in China? Is the health sector the tip of the iceberg in terms of the calcification of the decision-making process? Are there appropriate control mechanisms over the People's Liberation Army's maritime, land, space and cyber forces? What about the ability of Beijing to manage a "made in China" financial crisis as we saw in the 2008 financial crisis?
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.